[plt-scheme] 3rd-8th Grade

I've had customers who responded well to pictures with drag-and-drop  
functionality.  Typically, there was a map of the world, with objects  
of interest, whether they were depots, ships, airfields, supply  
lines, or situations, and being able to zoom in and out to visualize  
constraints and options helped non-programmers.  The point at which  
the non-programmers started to become programmers was when they moved  
objects on the screen to vary parameters or re-run scenarios.  I  
always wanted to prototype such systems in Smalltalk, but usually  
someone jumped in and "just said no."  I don't see why something very  
dynamic couldn't be built in Scheme with sufficient library support  
or a DSL.

I'm just piping in because there are big data synthesis and  
visualization efforts that gain a lot from interactive display and  
manipulation.  The highest level people evaluating such efforts have  
the least technical ability but control big budgets.  They don't need  
or want a big vocabulary.  They want icons and widgets that a child  
would understand.

Geoffrey
--
Geoffrey S. Knauth | http://knauth.org/gsk


On Mar 20, 2006, at 00:24, Carl Eastlund wrote:

> I still don't see a clear reason why it can't be done well.  I don't
> see why we couldn't make a "shapes" language level for DrScheme that
> was essentially the same as MzScheme (or to start with something
> simpler, Beginning Student) but done entirely "drag and drop".  Until
> someone does it, I of course completely admit I have no solid evidence
> if it would be good or bad.